About to Pull Out My Hair

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
husband's hoarding in the house is bad enough. Seriously, Nichole and I were working in the family room last weekend and we BOTH felt like we'd fallen into an episode of hoarders. And there is STILL much more to do in that area alone.

But the yard is about to make me just start screaming and not shut up. No joke.

The front yard is fine. husband kept up with it enough for "appearances" sake that it didn't go wild on me. I can manage it.

The back yard is a disaster area. Nichole and her husband helped me swing blade and weed eat the weeds down and do the garden area. In comparison to what it looked like when they started......(think jungle folks these weeds were well over my head and huge) it looked great. Now, it hasn't gotten like that again because I go out when I can and swing blade it down again. But digging up the weeds............when it's more weeds than grass........is proving to be probably a couple of years work at least. If I ever manage to beat it because they're sprouting new plants faster than I can get them out of the ground.

I don't like to use Round up for 2 reasons. 1. Nichole is horribly allergic to the stuff. (she helps me fairly often out there) and 2. the dogs And I'll add a reason because husband has done it several times and the darn things just come right back.

I want grass, not a yard full of various weeds, some the size of freaking jungle plants (no joke, they've got an 18 in leaf span), but it seems like I"m making no progress whatsoever.

And no I can't afford to have someone come in to do it. And yes, I'm about to go buy several gallons of Round up or something similar (despite Nichole and the dogs) and spray the devil out of the entire back yard. Then dump a ton of grass seed on it and water the heck out of it until it grows.

OMG but I hate hate hate putting chemicals on my yard/plants. But this is out of control. The thistles alone are about to drive me insane. I get rid of them in a spot and they pop up in a new one because the darn things reproduce so fast.

Any ideas?

Years ago we had to start from scratch back there because it was nothing but dead dirt and a few scraggly weeds. I had all the weeds gone and the dirt healthy with good grass growing for about 2 yrs or so. Then I went to school and husband let is start going to heck. Last summer he didn't mow/cut it down once and so now it's the Jungle. The dirt is far from dead now, and I've got every weed known to man. :faint:

It's very quickly overwhelming the one person who has to care for it. Me. ugh
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Lisa...

I know how Nichole feels about the RoundUp, I'm allergic too. But... In this case I think you need to do it. Since I kind of doubt the city of H will let you burn it...
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
DF's aunt just died (funeral today) her daughters are not keeping or sorting through ANYTHING. Found that odd - but they said "We never got to go through any of it - alive - we're not going through any of it dead" odd ...but whatever. SO they called a company like a thrift store and said - if you come and take it - you can have it -ALL - but you must take it all ----you get WHATEVER you find - jewelry - money - antiques....junk papers - etc.

PEOPLE WERE LINED UP ------to clean it out. Soooooo you may want to check with local thrifts and churches - and X-800-pack rat.....and see what their policies are. She was 85 years old, lived on a farm in ND and trust me - there are antiques out the wazoo -and I mean wazoo - but in your case - ONE hidden treasure - could mean - the difference between - junk and fantasy island.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
OH and as far as the grass? Ummmmmmm I can tell you from experience - GRASS does NOT just "GROW" like that - it's way more involved than that........you have to dig up the earth.....and if you dump round up on it? IT WILL NOT GROW in that area for a while.

You dig up the area.......or scratch the surface.......then add top soil or other bedding to start seed.

Then you throw out /cast the seed......for that area - is it shady? Sunny.

Then roll over the seed to tamp it into the soil

Then you cover the seed......with straw or birds will eat it.

Then you do water it often - daily

Then you monitor it for growth....and do not let dogs, kids, animals on it...and add fertilizer to it sparingly

And when it gets to a certain height - you can mow -

IT's a pain in the butt.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Oh good grief. Maybe I need to hire someone, or learn to live with mostly weeds in the yard. I can't dig up the whole yard.........I had enough issue with the garden beds, and one I just said to heck with. My yard is huge, not massive but huge non the less. It would take forever with several grown men to dig it up, even skimming off the surface.

I'm trying somewhat the method that worked last time. Getting as many weeds out as possible and then choking them out with grass.........while you keep yanking the weeds out. Eventually, the grass wins for the most part. But when I did it that way, it certainly wasn't just me working on it either.

I guess I'll just keep piddling along and try not to go bald while doing it...........Cuz there is no way I can keep the dogs out of the back yard, that is their main area. Front is too small.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Lisa, just a couple more ideas...

1) you could hire somebody with a roto-tiller to dig it all up... gives you a base to start from, more environmentally friendly than round-up, and you can start growing stuff immediately. Around here, it's almost as cheap as buying chemicals.... and on top of clearing the earth, it preps for planting.

2) get some corn-gluten weed treatment. This does NOT solve the "currently growing" weeds, but it does stop seed germination. Note: you can't use this with newly seeded grass, nor in a garden... for obvious reasons. But if you have some patches where there's more grass than weeds (even if it's 51% grass!), the corn gluten DOES work. You apply 2x/year at times just ahead of germination. Totally environmentally safe.

I've spent a number of years re-building a yard that previous owners left to go to rags and tatters... it will probably take another 5 to get it back, partly because the back yard is being used for "other things". But... digging up weeds out of grass DOES work, over time - especially if you can slow down the generation of "new" weeds. I now have more than 50% grass...
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Lisa, is your back yard very big? And does it get very hot there in the summer? This would be very ugly and you couldn't do it all at once - you'd have to do it in sections. If you can, get a section cut down to a reasonable length, as short as you can get it. Then cover the entire section with sheets of that heavy, black landscaping plastic. Weight down the corners and edges with rocks or bricks or whatever you have on hand. In the summer heat, it will get super hot under that plastic and it will literally cook anything growing underneath it, including any weed seeds there might be. Even better if you wet it down before you put on the plastic because it makes it really hot and steamy under there. After a while you should have nothing but dead brown stuff under there that can be tilled under so you can plant grass seed. I've never done it on a whole yard, just a flower bed size section, but it can be done.
 

1905

Well-Known Member
Is there type of machine thing that will do the job? I know Home Depot has machines you rent for a few hours. I don't know anything about machinery but my husband sometimes rents odd machinery from there.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Hound - My Mom sent you this........ROFLM - well you'll see.
[video=youtube_share;H2dlt67OSXs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2dlt67OSXs[/video]
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
You need what we need...a rototillar and a tractor. Even a small tractor. You get the weeds cut down and then you till them under. We have patches of grass that have moved in to take over the weeds..that is centipede but so much of our yard is just weeds because we moved onto a open field and just got a few plugs of centipede grass from people to put in the yard along with one bag that we tossed around.
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Mow it as low as you can, rent a rototiller, till it, plant some grass seeds and water it. This will not eliminate the weeds but it will get your yard to a condition you can control through mowing weekly.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Well...............

Honestly, I'm a bit leery of rototilling the yard. I dunno what ALL they used my backyard for over the past century and a half.........but it has some mighty BIG rocks and chunks of concrete in it, several inches under the dirt, in some places I might have a few feet before running in to them. (I've been "building" dirt for years here)

I had this reinforced when I did the digging for the garden. I'm afraid if I rent or borrow (because I can easily borrow one for free) a rototiller I'll hit a rock / piece of cement not knowing it was there and break the darn thing.

And when I say "building" dirt, I'm not joking. Years and years of Rowdy's winter straw bales have made me several inches of dirt........up to 2 feet in one area alone, that just weren't there when we moved in. husband and I attempted to dig out those rocks that first summer...........let's just say it didn't last long. Too many of the darn things, and too many that were too big to dig out. Easier to just make dirt on top of it.

But I got my fancy smancy mower with it's key ignition (thank you income tax return) and it's even self propelled (could've cared less about that but it came with it) and once we weed eat/swing blade it again in the morning.......I'm mowing it short. The mower even has a bag to catch the weeds. Didn't know it had that either, but I sure am NOT complaining! I whipped through the front yard in 10 minutes. LOL I'll go back to the manual out there..........I just wanted to see how it cuts, and it's frigging awesome! And for what it cost me, I'd have taken it back if it wasn't.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Well, the jungle no longer exists. YAY!

My new mower kicks butt, to put it mildly. I only have a little spot next to Rowdy's kennel to do but I have to make certain all the rocks/sticks are out first.........and I'm too worn out to do it now. I still have to dig out the biggest weeds, but at the moment every darn one of them is an inch high! Nichole was like OMG mom I don't remember the last time I saw the backyard mowed completely. (me either) She weedeated in areas the mower couldn't go. :)

Now my mom wants a mower like mine. She broke her shoulders years ago too in a nasty fall and the pull cords are murder for her to do now. So I told her the brand and where to get it. Nichole says when she gets a house they're going to buy one too. LOL Sure makes it easer, and super fast. Of course maybe it just seems that way after using the manual.
 
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